Hey everyone....Just thinking of planning a meetup for XKCD fans in the Chicago area. We could meet somewhere downtown....honestly, im not sure exactly what we would do....cause if its just gonna be alot of people who just talk about how awsome XKCD is, and how many comics they've memorized, or how many hours a day they spend reading the comics...even i wouldn't want to go. We could structure it like a think tank, talk about love, philosphy and science, especially topics brought up in XKCD comics (see the connection )....id include math but im really bad at math.... other people may be more inclined and its not all about me anyway....uhhhh...if anyone has any interest go ahead and comment....cools

How about an event with a few trashy Sci-Fi- flicks and some booze and eats? I know a few places where we could get some room for cheap. Or one of the fun tours of the city-like the river tours or the gangster tour or just a gastropub crawl?Or an afternoon at one of the cheap buffet places.

Don’t become a well-rounded person. Well rounded people are smooth and dull. Become a thoroughly spiky person. Grow spikes from every angle. Stick in their throats like a puffer fish.

I organized a couple small meets last year in the Chicago area. The best places to meet are probably in the DePaul area, because it's accessible via the Brown and Red lines and closer to more communities that xkcd readers come from than downtown. Maybe a restaurant or the zoo?

So Chi-town xkcd-ers, I will be hosting the Memorial Theobromas Bash at WindyCon this year. That's November 12th-14th, with the party happening Friday the 12th, sometime after 9PM.You can come to the party without being a member of the Convention.There will be chocolate! There will be whiskey for those of you who are old enough.All are welcome!Windycon info

Don’t become a well-rounded person. Well rounded people are smooth and dull. Become a thoroughly spiky person. Grow spikes from every angle. Stick in their throats like a puffer fish.

PAstrychef wrote:So Chi-town xkcd-ers, I will be hosting the Memorial Theobromas Bash at WindyCon this year. That's November 12th-14th, with the party happening Friday the 12th, sometime after 9PM.You can come to the party without being a member of the Convention.There will be chocolate! There will be whiskey for those of you who are old enough.All are welcome!Windycon info

Lombard is not at all far from me. But I'm looking at the con info page and I don't really get what it's about. Is it fairy tales, or just for people who consider themselves fay/fae? Will there be many people walking around with fairy wings on?

It's a fan-run SF/Fantasy Con. There will be people in fairy costumes, but there will be plenty of folks in tee-shirts and jeans, steampunk outfits, Star Trek uniforms, long stripy scarves and so on. I suspect most of the wings will be on people under the age of consent.The theme is more to amuse the con committee than anything else. It helps keep the interest level up. After all, there have been lots and lots of WindyCons.In 2012 we get WorldCon-just in time for the end of the world! (tee hee)

Don’t become a well-rounded person. Well rounded people are smooth and dull. Become a thoroughly spiky person. Grow spikes from every angle. Stick in their throats like a puffer fish.

The party is being thrown by me and my friends. We can invite whomever we wish. The convention has lots of stuff going on, for which there is a membership fee. Our party is not part of that stuff. We will most assuredly be going strong between 11 and midnight, and might not close down until 2 or 3, depending on our stamina and the interest level of the attendees.There will be other parties also going on, and most of them will also not care if you're a con member or not. People do go to cons as ghosts-hanging around to see friends and such, but not do anything "official". Party throwers WILL be checking IDs before giving out booze, so be sure to bring some if you want to drink.WindyCon may or may not be selling one-day passes, it's gone back and forth over the years.So come on down, bring a friend or two.

Don’t become a well-rounded person. Well rounded people are smooth and dull. Become a thoroughly spiky person. Grow spikes from every angle. Stick in their throats like a puffer fish.

The idea of a Chicago meet-up is an attractive one to me, but this particular location looks difficult to get to on public transit, and (probably) impossible to get away from on public transit late on Friday night/early on Saturday morning. I can rent a car, but in this fantastically transit-oriented city, it just seems like too much bother and cash (I do have a Zipcar membership, but when the trip is more than a few hours, it's often cheaper to rent a car from regular rental place for a full day). It looks like the hotel is 3.6 miles south of the Lombard stop on the Union Pacific West Metra Line and 3.4 miles north of the Downer's Grove stop on the Burlington Northern Metra Line. I'm going to spend some time with the convention website (even though your party is open to non-registered folks, PAstrychef, a con I wanted to go to might make the difference between going to this party or not, esp. as sleeping in the hotel might be logistically smart) before I decide if I want to go, but I'm a definite "maybe".

If a number of non-car city folks want to rent a car, or if an in-city person wants to drive a carpool for PAstrychef's party, this would make this meetup much more accessible. I'm still thinking about it, but I might be willing to rent a car and drive a carload of folks to and from the party.

PAstrychef wrote:So Chi-town xkcd-ers, I will be hosting the Memorial Theobromas Bash at WindyCon this year. That's November 12th-14th, with the party happening Friday the 12th, sometime after 9PM.You can come to the party without being a member of the Convention.There will be chocolate! There will be whiskey for those of you who are old enough.All are welcome!Windycon info

I'll be there at about 930 at the Memorial Theobromas Bash with PAstrychef, hope you can join! PM me if you can help coordinate rides or need a ride

Enuja wrote:The idea of a Chicago meet-up is an attractive one to me, but this particular location looks difficult to get to on public transit, and (probably) impossible to get away from on public transit late on Friday night/early on Saturday morning.

Agreed. I'd love to do a meetup at some point somewhere easier to get to via public transport, like downtown or chinatown.

I'm looking forward to the day when the SNES emulator on my computer works by emulating the elementary particles in an actual, physical box with Nintendo stamped on the side.

A Chicago meetup sounds awesome, but as others have pointed out, anything outside of public transit probably is going to be too hard for me. Weekends are best. I know it didn't take off last time, but I think bowling is a good option. An activity is always good, as a party or just going out with a bunch of people I don't really know seems like it could get awkward fast. Plus there would be booze.

I apologize, 90% of the time I write on the Fora I am intoxicated.

Yakk wrote:The question the thought experiment I posted is aimed at answering: When falling in a black hole, do you see the entire universe's future history train-car into your ass, or not?